neuron-request@HPLMS2.HPL.HP.COM ("Neuron-Digest Moderator Peter Marvit") (06/02/91)
Neuron Digest Saturday, 1 Jun 1991 Volume 7 : Issue 31 Today's Topics: Short Course on Genetics Algorithms at Stanford This July Info on Snowflake diagrams for spike train analysis Bibliographic Databases Grad research assistant position available I NEED TO LOCATE SOME TECH REPORTS FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BIONS a new book on speech recognition Transportation Applications Deadline Extension of IJCNN'91 Singapore Send submissions, questions, address maintenance and requests for old issues to "neuron-request@hplabs.hp.com" or "{any backbone,uunet}!hplabs!neuron-request" Use "ftp" to get old issues from hplpm.hpl.hp.com (15.255.176.205). ------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Short Course on Genetics Algorithms at Stanford This July From: John Koza <koza@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU> Date: Tue, 21 May 91 14:51:01 -0700 SHORT COURSE ON GENETIC ALGORITHMS AT STANFORD A five-day short course entitled "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning" will be presented at Stanford University's Western Institute in Computer Science on July 22-26 by David E. Goldberg (Illinois) and John R. Koza (Stanford). The course presents in-depth coverage of GA mechanics, theory, and application in search, optimization, and machine learning. Students will be encouraged to solve their own problems in hands-on computer workshops monitored by the course instructors. For further information regarding this course contact Joleen Barnhill, Western Institute in Computer Science, PO Box 1238, Magalia, CA 95954, (916) 873-0575, email: barnhill@hudson.stanford.edu. ------------------------------ Subject: Info on Snowflake diagrams for spike train analysis From: "David C. Tam" <dtam@next-cns.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu> Date: Wed, 22 May 91 20:08:59 -0600 This is a brief summary of the information on "snowflake" diagrams in Neurobiological Signal Analysis in reply to the request by Judea Pearl (via kroger@cognet.ucla.edu). Snowflake scatter diagram was one of the spike train analytical methods introduced by Donald Perkel and George Gerstein et al in the 1970's to analyze the correlation between firing intervals among 3 neurons. Background: Spike trains are time-series of action potentials recorded from biological neurons. Since the firing times of spikes by neurons vary in time (i.e., they jitter in time), the analysis of the timing relationships between the firing of neurons require specialized statistical methods which deals with pulse-codes. The most often used statistics is the correlation analysis (which is also developed by Donald Perkel and George Gerstein et al earlier in the 1960's to analyze spike train data). Snowflake analysis and correlation analysis are similar in the following ways: Whereas correlation analysis establishes statistics for pair-wise correlation between 2 spike trains (neurons), snowflake analysis establishes statistics for 3-wise correlation among 3 neurons. Whereas correlation analysis establishes statistics for all higher-order firing intervals between neurons, snowflake analysis establishes statistics for only first-order intervals. Snowflake diagram and joint-interval histogram are similar in the following ways: Whereas joint-interval scatter diagram has 2 orthogonal axes (in a 2-D plane) for displaying the adjacent cross-interval between 2 neurons, snowflake scatter diagram has 3-axes (each 120 degrees from each other) in a 2-D plane for displaying the adjacent cross-interval between 3 neurons. They both establish first-order interval statistics. I have worked with Donald Perkel until he deceased, but George Gerstein is still at Univ. of Penn. I have worked on numerous spike train analytical methods including snowflake diagram. I have also developed other similar spike train analysis techniques, so further detailed questions can be directed to me (David Tam, e-mail: dtam@next-cns.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu) if needed. Related references: Perkel, D.H., Gerstein, G.L., Smith, M.S. and Tatton, W.G. (1975) Nerve-impulse patterns: a quantitative display technique for three neurons, Brain Research. 100: 271-296. Gerstein, G. L. and Perkel, D. H. (1972) Mutual temporal relationships among neuronal spike trains, Biophysical Journal. 12: 453-473. Perkel, D.H., Gerstein, G.L. and Moore, G.P. (1967) Neuronal spike trains and stochastic point process. I. The single spike train. Biophysical Journal. 7: 391-418. Perkel, D.H., Gerstein, G.L. and Moore, G.P. (1967) Neuronal spike trains and stochastic point process. II. Simultaneous spike trains. Biophysical Journal. 7: 419-440. Tam, D.C, Ebner, T.J. and Knox, C.K. (1987) Conditional cross-interval correlation analyses with applications to simultaneously recorded cerebellar Purkinje neurons. Journal of Neurosci. Methods. 23: 23-33. ------------------------------ Subject: Bibliographic Databases From: mike@park.bu.edu Date: Wed, 22 May 91 23:02:30 -0400 I would like to merge the Krogh BiBTeX database with others which outside users might provide. If people send me BibTeX databases, I will attempt to merge this with the Krogh database and post the enlarged BiBTeX database to neuroprose. This enlarged database will be submitted to neuroprose directory on cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu. -mike Boston University (617-353-7857) Email: mike@bucasb.bu.edu Smail: Michael Cohen 111 Cummington Street, RM 242 Center for Adaptive Systems Boston, Mass 02215 Boston University ------------------------------ Subject: Grad research assistant position available From: jones@cis.uab.edu (Warren Jones) Date: Thu, 23 May 91 08:10:48 -0500 UAB GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSTION AVAILABLE University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Computer and Information Sciences Contact: Warren Jones at jones@cis.uab.edu Position: Our neural network research group has been allocated a Graduate Research Assistantship position for 1991-92. This authorization was made late in the year, so we are using this media as a fast way to get the word out. The ideal candidate would qualify for admission into our Ph.D. program, have a strong mathematics background, a masters degree in computer science with coursework and experience in the use and development of neural network models. We are particularly interested in parallel processing approaches to the training problem for feed-forward networks. Our current application domain is EKG data. The stipend for this Assistantship is $7,600 and full tuition. Department: The two major research directions in the department are high performance computing and graphics/image processing. There are also opportunities for biomedical computing applications through faculty collaborations with the UAB Medical Center. The department laboratory facilities include a network of Sun 3 and Sun 4 workstations and servers, a microVAX, a 30 processor Sequent Balance 21000 parallel computer and high speed access to the Alabama Supercomputer Center Cray XMP as well as a recently acquired 128 processor NCUBE system. The Department is also a University Affiliate of the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Computing Research Facility(ACRF) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These affiliations facilitate both training and research for our students and faculty on high performance systems such as Cray YMP, Cray 2, Thinking Machines CM-2, Alliant FX/80 and others. University: UAB is has an enrollment of approximately 15,500 students pursuing their education on the 270 acre campus located on the southside of Birmingham. The major units within the university are the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Arts and Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Business, Education, Engineering, Public and Allied Health, Optometry and Nursing. The Department of Computer and Information Sciences is located within the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. UAB ranks among the top public institutions in the country in terms of federal research and development support, having attracted more than $100 million per year. Birmingham: Birmingham is a major metropolitan area of almost 900,000 and is a southeastern center of finance, telecommuications and medicine. A wide variety of cultural and sports attractions are available, including the symphony, ballet, theater and UAB Blazers basketball. The area has a pleasant climate all year. Both the Gulf Coast and the Great Smoky Mountains are only a four hour drive by car. If you are interested please contact me at the above internet address and we can provide you with additional information and answer any questions you may have. ------------------------------ Subject: I NEED TO LOCATE SOME TECH REPORTS From: Wan Kong Wah <ISSWANKW%NUSVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Date: Fri, 24 May 91 15:15:15 +0700 Hello, My name is Wan Kong Wah. I am from Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore. Currently, I am research in the boundary contour system proposed by Steven Grossberg. I need to locate several of his reports. Can you help me by either sending them to me or tell me which ftp sites I can get them from ? The reports are : 1. Supervised Real-Time Learning and Classification of Nonstationary Data By a Self-Organizing Neural Network, CAS/CNS-TR-91-001 2. Fuzzy Art : An Adaptive Resonance Algorithm for Rapid, Stable Classification of Analog Patterns CAS/CNS-TR-91-006 3. Preattentive Texture Segmentation and Grouping by the Boundary Contour System CAS/CNS-TR-91-008 4. Invariant Recognition of Cluttered Scenes by a Self-Organizing Art- Architecture : Figure Ground Separation CAS/CNS-TR-91-012 Thank you. Regards, Kong Wah ------------------------------ Subject: FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BIONS From: Stephen Smoliar <ISSSSM%NUSVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Date: Sun, 26 May 91 15:16:38 +0700 It was with a fair amount of curiosity that I responded to Mark Ring's announcement of the availability of his paper, "Incremental Development of Complex Behaviors through Automatic Construction of Sensory-motor Hierarchies." Papers which come on that strong often tend to deliver far less than they promise. This one seems to have hooked my curiosity, however; and, in the interest of trying to drum up some discussion, I wanted to raise some questions basically inspired by the final sections on related work and conclusions. In the case of citing related work, I think that Ring may have committed two "sins of omission" (which are probably not even major enough to be called "sins"). The more important is that the approach he advocates seems quite consisted with the approach which Minsky seems to be trying to pursue in THE SOCIETY OF MIND. I think there is a good chance that bions are the sorts of computational elements from which Minsky-like agents might ultimately be built; and I, for one, would be interested in some discussion on this observations. Another point involving related work is that I suspect the resemblance to LISP (and there is no denying that resemblance) is more than superficial. Basically, LISP taught us that an ordered pair of pointers is all you need to build hierarchical structures of arbitrary complexity. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the sorts of hierarchies which Ring is interested in developing should end up being built of the same basic stuff with only minor variations applied to allow for a different regimen of control. My greatest disappointment was that the one example which was invoked in order to demonstrate bions was just not very realistic. I would be very interested in just how much has been done with bions so far. Can they, for example, be invoked for the sort of learning one might wish to associate with a Brooks- like robot? Another question concerns this whole premise of incremental development. Being able to build hierarchies from behaviors which are already in your repertoire is certainly a good thing, but where do you start? Where does an agent's inital set of behaviors come from? My inclination would be to turn to the work of Edelman for an answer here and consider the possibility of a selectionist mechanism working of shaking down an extremely vast repertoire of behaviors, sifting it down to a viable set of building blocks. I am also a bit concerned about putting too much "chunking" effort into a single bion. A "chunked" bion can, indeed, encapsulate a rather complex pattern of behavior; but that behavior may involve some number of low-level decisions which have to be satisfied before it can terminate. (This is even apparent in the relatively simple wall-avoiding example which is given.) The point is that what Ring chooses to call "intention" may be based on a set of assumed conditions, and the discovery that some of those conditions do not hold may only arise while trying to satisfy the intention. In other words there may be grounds for a "chunked" bion to start up; but those grounds to not guarantee that it will ever terminate. I think it is necessary to consider to what extent this is an important issue and would welcome both a response from Ring and further discussion on the matter. Acknowledge-To: <ISSSSM@NUSVM> ------------------------------ Subject: a new book on speech recognition From: Xuedong.Huang@SPEECH2.CS.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 28 May 91 21:10:00 -0400 New Book in the Edinburgh Information Technology Series (EDITS 7) ================================================================= X.D. Huang, Y. Ariki, and M. Jack: "Hidden Markov Models for Speech Recognition", Edinburgh University Press, 1990, 30 Pounds. (ISBN 0 7486 0162 7). "Despite the fact that the hidden Markov model approach to speech recognition is now considered a mature technology, there are very few textbooks which cover the subject in any depth. This new addition to the Edinburgh EDITS series is therefore very welcome. ... I know of no other comparable work and it is therefore a timely and userful addition to the literature" -- Book review, Computer Speech and Language To order, contact Edinburgh University Press. For more information, contact xdh@speech2.cs.cmu.edu. ------------------------------ Subject: Transportation Applications From: martin@business.carleton.ca (Martin Laplante) Date: Thu, 30 May 91 07:04:14 -0400 I am doing a study for the Canadian Department of Transportation on potential applications of neural nets in the transportation sector. I would appreciate any references, descriptions of work in progress, or even good ideas that you don't mind me quoting. The scope is pretty wide, including air, road, rail, and water. Typical applications involve navigation, routing, autonomous vehicles, fleet operations, airport security, traffic control, and specific transportation applications of speech recognition, OCR, and fare-setting. ------------------------------ Subject: Deadline Extension of IJCNN'91 Singapore From: hwang@pierce.ee.washington.edu ( J. N. Hwang) Date: Mon, 27 May 91 08:09:20 -0700 If you are inclined to waiting to the last minute to submit conference papers, you will be happy to learn that the deadline for submission of papers to the IJCNN'91 Singapore has been extended to June 30, 1991. IJCNN'91 Publicity Committee =-------------------------------------------------------------------- IJCNN'91 SINGAPORE, CALL FOR PAPERS CONFERENCE: The IEEE Neural Network Council and the international neural network society (INNS) invite all persons interested in the field of Neural Networks to submit FULL PAPERS for possible presentation at the conference. FULL PAPERS: must be received by "June 30", 1991. All submissions will be acknowledged by mail. Authors should submit their work via Air Mail or Express Courier so as to ensure timely arrival. Papers will be reviewed by senior researchers in the field, and all papers accepted will be published in full in the conference proceedings. The conference hosts tutorials on Nov. 18 and tours arranged probably on Nov. 17 and Nov. 22, 1991. Conference sess- ions will be held from Nov. 19-21, 1991. Proposals for tutorial speakers & topics should be submitted to Professor Toshio Fukuda (address below) by Nov. 15, 1990. TOPICS OF INTEREST: original, basic and applied papers in all areas of neural networks & their applications are being solicited. FULL PAPERS may be submitted for consideration as oral or poster pres- entation in (but not limited to) the following sessions: -- Associative Memory -- Sensation & Perception -- Electrical Neurocomputers -- Sensormotor Control System -- Image Processing -- Supervised Learning -- Invertebrate Neural Networks -- Unsupervised Learning -- Machine Vision -- Neuro-Physiology -- Neurocognition -- Hybrid Systems (AI, Neural -- Neuro-Dynamics Networks, Fuzzy Systems) -- Optical Neurocomputers -- Mathematical Methods -- Optimization -- Applications -- Robotics AUTHORS' SCHEDULE: Deadline for submission of FULL PAPERS (camera ready) June 30, 1991 Notification of acceptance Aug. 31, 1991 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Eight copies (One original and seven photocopies) are required for submission. Do not fold or staple the original, camera ready copy. Papers of no more than 6 pages, including figures, tables and references, should be written in English and only complete papers will be considered. Papers must be submitted camera-ready on 8 1/2" x 11" white bond paper with 1" margins on all four sides. They should be prepared by typewriter or letter quality printer in one-column format, single-spaced or similar type of 10 points or larger and should be printed on one side of the paper only. FAX submissions are not acceptable. Centered at the top of the first page should be the complete title, author name(s), affiliation(s) and mailing address(es). This is followed by a blank space and then the abstract, up to 15 lines, followed by the text. In an accompanying letter, the following must be included: -- Corresponding author: -- Presentation preferred: Name Oral Mailing Address Poster Telephone & FAX number -- Technical Session: -- Presenter: 1st Choice Name 2nd Choice Mailing Address Telephone & FAX number FOR SUBMISSION FROM JAPAN, SEND TO: Professor Toshio Fukuda Programme Chairman IJCNN'91 SINGAPORE Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-Ku Nagoya 464-01 Japan. (FAX: 81-52-781-9243) FOR SUBMISSION FROM USA, SEND TO: Ms Nomi Feldman Meeting Management 5565 Oberlin Drive, Suite 110 San Diego, CA 92121 (FAX: 81-52-781-9243) FOR SUBMISSION FROM REST OF THE WORLD, SEND TO: Dr. Teck-Seng, Low IJCNN'91 SINGAPORE Communication Intl Associates Pte Ltd 44/46 Tanjong Pagar Road Singapore 0208 (TEL: (65) 226-2838, FAX: (65) 226-2877, (65) 221-8916) ------------------------------ End of Neuron Digest [Volume 7 Issue 31] ****************************************